Woodland's 'most wanted' burglary suspect caught in Madison

A message-laden sign led to the capture of Woodland's most wanted burglar: Stop.

Mario Lopez was arrested early Thursday morning by Yolo County Sheriff's deputies after the car in which he was a passenger ran a stop sign in rural Madison, according to Sheriff Capt. Larry Cecchettini.

After being at large for a few weeks, Lopez is now being held on $815,000 bail in the Yolo County Jail on fresh charges of burglary, possession of methamphetamine, committing felonies while out on bail, violation of probation and conspiracy to commit felonies - all of which he is alleged to have committed in the Yolo County Sheriff's jurisdiction, Cecchettini said.

Lopez was also arrested on previous charges of five outstanding warrants for various crimes in the Woodland area including burglary, possession of stolen property, narcotics charges, weapons charges and child endangerment.

As if that wasn't enough, police found methamphetamine on Lopez during the booking process and arrested him for that as well.

"At 12:30 a.m., a vehicle was stopped in Madison for a vehicle code violation," explained Cecchettini in a statement. "It was immediately determined that Mario Lopez was a passenger inside this vehicle. Lopez was placed under arrest by deputies from the Yolo County Sheriff's Ag Theft Task Force and transported to the Yolo County Monroe Center for booking."

A task force consisting of 18 law enforcement officers from the Yolo County Sheriff's Ag Theft Task Force, Woodland Police, Davis Police, the Yolo Narcotics Enforcement Team and the California Highway Patrol had been scouring various parts of the county looking for Lopez throughout the day and into the night Thursday, Cecchettini said.

The arrest came the same day Woodland police announced a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Lopez.

It's unknown at this time if anyone will receive the reward, said Police Sgt. Brett Hancock.

"I'm glad the sheriff's department arrested him because he needed to get into custody," he said.

The reward announcement was a day after police, sheriff's deputies and an aircraft crew spent hours searching for Lopez after he was spotted in a vehicle around 10:30 a.m., Tuesday.

Police set up a perimeter in the of vicinity of Sixth Street and Gum Avenue searching homes' yards for the suspect - unsuccessfully.

Though he turned himself into police twice, Lopez has been eluding law enforcement since January. Lopez turned himself into police first on Jan. 25. He was arrested without incident at the Woodland Police Department and booked into the Yolo County Jail.

After being released on bail, Lopez disappeared for a week even though he had an ankle bracelet to monitor his whereabouts. The suspicion was that he either cut the bracelet off or that it stopped working for some reason.

Then, two weeks ago, Lopez went to the front window at the Yolo County Jail and identified himself, said Capt. Robin Faille, the county's detention center commander. The clerk confirmed that he had a warrant and asked him to wait for an available officer. After 14 minutes, Lopez left.

A string of home burglaries throughout Woodland spurred a crackdown by police. Lopez is among many connected with more than 150 burglaries between November and January, said Hancock.

"The responsible parties for many of these burglaries were identified," Hancock added in a previous statement. "The Woodland Police Department arrested a number of these suspects at the end of January during a massive search warrant operation with the assistance of other law enforcement agencies in Yolo County. As well as making arrests we recovered a lot of property which will be returned to the victims in time."

After making these arrests the burglaries dropped to less than 30 in February, from more than 60 in January, he said.

Anyone with information regarding the latest investigations are encouraged to call the Woodland Police Department Investigations Division at 661-7800.